Honeybees in Japan defend seabirds from crafty crows

Japan's crows are tough — too tough for flocks of terns who spend the summer near Narita Airport after migrating from the southern hemisphere.


One day, a local birder who had watched helplessly each year as the crows picked off tern eggs and hatchlings had an epiphany: Honeybees instinctively attack anything dark-colored that comes near their hive, so why not use that instinct to repel the crows from the terns' nests?



Hang in there, Mr. Tern. The honeybees are coming!


—Mellow Monk

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Translucent creatures

National Geographic has a great slideshow of translucent sea creatures.



A comb jellyfish in the dark depths off Antarctica.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's World Heritage sites

The English-language edition of the Mainichi Daily News has a long, colorful slideshow of Japan's UNESCO World Heritage sites.



Tame deer wander through Nara Park, one of Japan's World Heritage sites.


—Mellow Monk

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The man who saved the Akita

It may be hard to believe now, but back in the mid-1940s, Japan's Akita breed of dog was on the brink of extinction, pushed there by wartime deprivation and the popularity of foreign breeds, such as the German shepherd.


Literally coming to the dogs' rescue was engineer Morie Sawataishi. His tale [get it?] is recounted in author Martha Sherrill's book Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain.


Of the hundred or so Akitas he owned, Sawataishi was closest to one named Samurai Tiger:

Sherrill writes about how Sawataishi, now in his 90s, chokes up when talking about Samurai Tiger, of how a conversation about the spirited dog can occupy an entire night and drain many glasses of sake.

Morie Sawataishi with Kurasawa-Toro.


—Mellow Monk

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Cats playing the theremin

It's a simple filmmaking concept: You buy a Theremin Mini — a scaled-down version of the original theremin — turn it on, stand back, and let your cats discover their hidden musical talents:








—Mellow Monk

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Bulldog nurses tiger

A slideshow of the animal kingdom's oddest couuples includes a French bulldog nursing and raising a baby tiger at Japan's Shirotori Zoo [image search], located in the city of Higashikagawa. The tiger cub had been rejected by his mother.



Hachi the tiger cuddles with his new mom, Nana. Raised on dog's milk, Hachi is just like other tigers — other than a propensity to chase his tail.


—Mellow Monk

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In Japan, clever crows confound communities

Feeding on urban refuse, Japan's crows are thriving.


And these birdbrains are clever. When power companies began removing nests from electric poles because they were causing blackouts, the birds began building decoy nests.


But we should expect as much from a bird that back in the '90s first learned to crack hard nuts by dropping them on roads for cars to run over, then figured out that the best place on a road to drop nuts was in crosswalks [link to video].


If these guys ever figure out the Internet, we could be in serious trouble.



Maybe he's upset that trash collection was early today.


—Mellow Monk

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Spidercat

Here's a video that shows you've got to be careful about what movies you let your cat watch.





—Mellow Monk

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Alligator blood is good for you!

A few days ago I blogged about how green tea can make antibiotics more effective against drug-resistant superbugs.


Well, now comes a story about a superbug cure that sounds like it's straight out of a cheesy horror movie: alligator blood.


Scientists had long wondered why alligators, who are notorious for their bloody territorial fights, seldom get infections from the gory wounds they inflict on each other.


Some researchers finally got around to taking a close look at alligator blood, and what they found was bacteria-fighting blood as tough as the alligators themselves:

Chemists in Louisiana found that blood from the American alligator can successfully destroy 23 strains of bacteria, including strains known to be resistant to antibiotics.

In addition, the blood was able to deplete and destroy a significant amount of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

And if blood from an ordinary alligator can do all that, imagine what pharmacological wonders await discovery in the blood of a standing alligator.



"Uh, sorry Mr. Alligator, but would you hold still a sec while we take a sample of your blood? That's a good alligator."


—Mellow Monk

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Rare ibis seen in Aso, Japan

Reporters and birders in Japan have been flocking [pun intended] to Aso to see a kurotoki, or black-headed ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus), a species rarely seen in Japan. (Its normal habitat is China and Southeast Asia.)


According to this news video [in Japanese only], this individual ibis first appeared in Aso last fall and has been seen in the area almost daily ever since. "He's like a member of the family now," says the woman interviewed.


The news report also says that although the bird seems to have an injured leg, it can still fly and feed itself, so the local branch of the Wild Bird Society of Japan (Yacho no Kai) has decided not to capture it for protective purposes.


The kurotoki ("black toki") is not to be confused with the crested ibis, or just plain toki, which was once common throughout Japan but long ago disappeared from the country's skies. Captive breeding efforts using birds from China are attempting to save the crested ibis from extinction and re-introduce it to Japan.



The rare bird. (Click on the photo to watch the video.)


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's hot-tubbing monkeys

Humans aren't the only ones who've discovered the pure bliss of a nice, hot soak in a natural hot spring. The length and breadth of Japan are dotted with hot springs thanks to the country's many volcanoes, and wild macaque monkeys (or "minkeys," as Inspector Clouseau would say) can be seen bathing in natural hot springs in places such as Nagano.


Another example of hot-spring aficionados in Japan's animal kingdom are the famous hot-spring-bathing capybaras of Ito City.



Movie-star monkeys pose for pictures.



This hot-spring inn is for humans only.


—Mellow Monk

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Warm teapot for a cold budgie

Our budgie, Sunny—who's gotten her own press coverage—is pretty smart. She's figured out that a teapot full of hot green tea is a nice, toasty spot to get warm. On cold nights, whenever she sees a teapot on the table, she flies over and perches on the handle.


(Her cage is open most of the time, although her flight feathers are kept short enough to keep her from flying very far in the event she gets outside—we have a lot of cats in the neighborhood!)




"Mmm ... nice and warm."


—Mellow Monk

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Japanese companies offer pet allowance

With pet ownership on the rise in Japan, companies are beginning to offer employees a pet allowance as an incentive to recruit and retain talent.



She can now get help from her employer to care for Pochi.


—Mellow Monk

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Capybaras enjoy a nice, hot yuzu bath

When you get chilled to the bone on a cold winter's day, there's nothing like a nice hot bath to raise your core temperature.


Well, capybaras apparently appreciate a hot bath, too, because as the photos below show, the capybaras of Izu Shaboten Park in Ito City are famous for the hot yuzu baths they seem to enjoy so much in wintertime.


Yuzu are often plopped into baths for the wonderful natural fragrance they impart to the waters, and for the smooth feeling that the citrus oils impart to the skin.


By the way, a "yuzu bath" is also a cocktail.





Guys, a word of advice: If people start adding sliced-up carrots and onions to the water, GET OUT!



—Mellow Monk

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Japan's electric-eel-powered Xmas lights

At the Aqua Toto Gifu aquarium (famous for its mudskippers), an electric eel powers Christmas tree lights outside of its tank via a copper wire.



Mr. Eel on the job.


—Mellow Monk

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Ultra-popular cat beds made from rice straw

This is the time of year when farmers in Sekikawa Village in Niigata Prefecture get busy weaving one of their most popular local products: cat beds (neko chigura).


Winter tends to be a slow time for farmers—and a time when cats seek warm places to sleep. Way back in 1980, someone in Sekikawa put two and two together and came up with an idea to fill an unmet need and make productive use of the winter downtime: They would take a traditional baby basket, hand-woven with rice straw (which rice farmers have a lot of on hand), and modify it for the village's mice-catching members.


(I suspect that the inventor was inspired by heat-seeking felines napping in the baby baskets the way the cat in the photo below is doing.)


The hand-woven baskets turned out to be a smash hit with cats and their owners, with orders now flooding in from all over Japan. The trouble is, the village's current cohort of 19 weavers can produce only about 500 cat beds a year—not nearly enough to keep up with demand. Consequently, if you want to order one (you can find the contact info here) there's a one-year waiting list.


[Source: Asahi Shinbun. Japanese article here.]



Said the kitty right before he attacked the reporter's legs, "Hey, who said you could take my picture?"


—Mellow Monk

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Doggie "retirement home" opens in Japan

Just like the title says—a retirement home for dogs opens in Japan.



Uh oh, Benji. Looks like Mr. Joe is surfing the Web for a home for retired dog actors.


—Mellow Monk

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In Japan, yoga goes to the dogs--literally

Doga—yoga for dogs—is popular not only in the U.S. but even in Japan, too.

Translations of foreign doga books are selling well, and of course there's even a Japan Dog Yoga Association.

Speaking of Japan's doggie-destressing industry, one Japanese company has invented a patch to tell if a dog is stressed out.



I had no idea my golden retriever, when she sat like this, was practicing doga.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan to get guide-dogs-to-be from Australia

Guide Dogs Victoria recently sent "some of Australia's finest four-legged genes" to Japan to help the blind.



By the time you read this, Faye, Fuji and Vega will be in Japan undergoing guide-dog training.


—Mellow Monk

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In Japan, an aquatic gym to ease Fido's aching joints

An aquatic dog gym opens in Japan. (Click the link to see a movie in the Windows Media or RealPlayer format.)



Now aquasize is going to the dogs.


—Mellow Monk

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Dogs reduce stress

A researcher writing in the British Journal of Health Psychology has found that dog owners tend to have lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

One reason might be the exercise that human owners get from "walkies." But that's not the only reason:

"It is possible that dogs can directly promote our well-being by buffering us from stress, one of the major risk factors associated with ill-health."

—Mellow Monk

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Panda twins born in Japanese zoo

Mei Mei, a giant panda on loan from China as a goodwill gesture, gave birth to twins at a zoo/amusement park called Adventure World in Wakayama.



Mei Mei with her twins. (In this photo, she's being fed, not muzzled.)


—Mellow Monk

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Angel doggie

The Angel Doggie website has been redesigned.


The artist who runs the site, Galen Hazelhofer, specializes in animal portraits, including "angelized" paintings of pets who have gone on, but she paints other subjects, too.





—Mellow Monk

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Maneki-neko, the beckoning cat of good fortune

Cat Fancy magazine ran an article on the origins of Japan's maneki neko, the ubiquitous beckoning-cat statue.

According to legend, the tradition dates back to a real-life cat who beckoned a famous general away from a spot where lightning struck the ground only seconds later.

I, however, had always imagined a different origin for the tradition. Anyone who knows cats know that occasionally they really do what looks like a beckoning gesture. In the Japan of old, shopkeepers often kept cats who earned their keep by catching rats. Perhaps one particular shopkeeper's cat sat in front of the store doing that cute beckoning gesture, attracting people to the shop and thereby filling up the shopkeeper's till. And the rest, as they say, is history. Perhaps.



"I swear, ma'am, 'twas not me what gone an' ate that katsuoboshi."


—Mellow Monk

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Whales getting struck in busy Japanese shipping lanes

Like deer getting hit by cars while trying to cross a busy highway, more whales are colliding with ships in the world's crowded shipping lanes. In Japan, such incidents are especially on the rise around the island of Kyushu:

Collisions between whales and ships have become a fact of life in areas around Japan's main southwest island of Kyushu as well as the sea that separates South Korea and Kyushu, with about a dozen incidents reported in the past two and a half years.

"You look like nice people, so I'll let you off with just a warning this time. But next time, I might not be in such a good mood."


—Mellow Monk

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Fido, take your human for a walk

Previously I've posted about the positive health effects of pets. (In that case, findings showed that hospital visits by dogs improved the survival chances of heart attack victims.)

Now a Candadian study shows another benefit of having a four-legged friend: They help us get more exercise. (And you thought you were taking the dog for a walk.)

—Mellow Monk

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Flippered friends reduce stress

Speaking of dolphins, here's more proof that pets are a great stress-reducer: A study showed that swimming with dolphins helped patients with clinical depression.

These results remind me of another study, which showed that heart-attack survivors experienced reduced stress levels when they participated in an animal-assisted therapy program that invovled visits from dogs.

—Mellow Monk

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The doctor accepts payment in cash, check, or chew toys

Yesterday I mentioned a survey whose results proved something we already knew.

Well, another survey falling into the we-already-knew-that category shows that pets make us feel good. The study also goes one step further and shows that these positive emotional effects include reducing stress in measurable ways. But what makes this study so attention-worthy is that the subjects whose stress levels were measurably reduced by quality time with a pet were heart-attack survivors recuperating in a hospital.

—Mellow Monk

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Dolphin catcher turned dolphin liberator

Richard O'Barry is an ex-U.S. Navy diver who in the 1960s helped catch dolphins for marine parks. He even trained the dolphins who played "Flipper" in the TV series of the same name. Later, though, he began working to undo his work by lobbying to free dolphins kept in captivity.

He even helped free a dolphin named Flipper in Brazil in the '90s (not one of the original Flippers, as some reports state).

Mr. Barry, if you read this, please drop me a line. I have some free Mellow Monk green tea for you!

—Mellow Monk

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